Why does this hen’s back look like this?
She’s starting to look like the Colonel’s Original Recipe more by the day.
There are two explanations, as far as I can tell.
Number one, this hen is the low man on the totem pole. She’s at the bottom of the pecking order; the other hens brutalize her because she wears off-brand sneakers and has no boobs. (Oh wait, I’m thinking back to my own middle school days.) I’ve said many times, chickens are very hierarchical — it’s where the term pecking order comes from — everyone in the flock knows their place. Step out of line and a chicken gets stabbed in the back with a beak! I should mention that she’s not the only hen in the flock who’s starting to look a little rough around the edges. There are at least 3-4 more.
THe books say pecking can be exacerbated by crowded conditions. But c’mon — my flock spreads out like tourists in a Costa Rican time share. They have ample room to run, stretch, bathe, sleep, and lay eggs.
The Hen House has more square footage than my last NYC apartment
Which leads me to my other theory:
The two roosters are mounting a handful of hens too frequently. This hen may be Heimlich AND Plumpy’s favorite. She’s become their personal concubine — like Princess Leia with Jabba The Hut.
I can’t have that. Call me sexist, but a hen’s life is worth far more to me than a rooster’s. Methinks Heimlich or Plumpy or BOTH will have to be dispatched.
All original content © 2012 by Jessie Knadler
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Poor hen! This is yet another reason why I keep trying to put off my husband from getting chickens! I might faint over this
Allison: You don’t have to get a rooster. In fact, I don’t recommend it unless you want to hatch some chicks. The hens still lay eggs whether or not the eggs are fertilized. And you don’t have to worry about a chicken with a scratched back.
Oh! I would find myself very protective of my hens. Roosters are so mean anyway, that I fear I would be looking for an excuse to off them. Poor hens!
I have quite a few chickens that that has happened to also. They used to never. My chickens also have a lot of room too and I don’t think it is the rooster. I have tried everything. They say it is from boredom to so I try to add lots of little extra’s they can peck at instead of each other. Someone said it could be mites but I have dusted them and their coop as instructed on the powder instuctions. It bothers me because I don’t like how they look but I just think chickens aren’t very nice to each other. If you do come up with a solution though I would love to hear it.
Teri: I’ve also heard pecking could be due to a lack of salt, protein or fiber in their diet but I don’t see how that could be since my birds forage on bugs and grass all week, supplemented by chicken feed, cracked corn and pulverized oyster shells. I’m trying to be more diligent about feeding them table scraps to ensure their diet is sufficiently well rounded, but I haven’t noticed less pecking. But I agree with you: Chickens really aren’t very nice to each other! They’re quite horrible, actually.
How many hens do you have? I have found that if I have less than 10 – 15 per rooster, the “low man” hens tend to get pretty beat up. Especially if you bring in young roosters with mature hens. The older girls would beat the roosters up too much at first, so the roos seek out the meeker hens. Unless you start seeing blood, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. You could separate her but it will only be worse when she goes back in. Solution – you need more hens!!!!!!
Kitty
Kitty: Or less roosters! THat’s the option I like!
I have 5 hens that look exactly like that and NO roosters. I was given them by a neighbor who believes they have “too many” hens for the space they have allotted. I’ve noticed my hens pecking each other, so I’m inclined to say it’s just chickens or maybe boredom as I have hooked up the ps2 in their coop yet.
What timing! I just got back from a magical, mystical trip to Kauai (first, not last) where you simply can’t walk a 1/2 block without encountering a rooster and his harem. They are everywhere! It’s a big problem for the island. As a visitor, the only real trouble it caused was forcing myself to imagine that the hens sprinting away from the horndog roosters in hot pursuit of them were just playing hard to get.